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8th April 2009 After our long trek we had a well deserved lie in. When we finally got up we headed to the highest Irish bar in the world to watch Liverpool play in The Champions League. Although the score wasn't good the food was. Today was Mike's (one of the guys from the trip) 30th birthday so in the evening we all returned to the Irish bar to help him celebrate. After a good night, a few beers and tequillas we were on our way back when Mike noticed his wallet was missing. After trying to search for it, they discovered that it was either lost or stolen, could anyone have worse luck. Unfortunately this meant that they could not come to the Amazon and were stranded in Peru with no money or cards.
9th April 2009 We awoke for yet another early airport transfer. The flight from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado was ridiculously short and took about 40 minutes. We were met at the airport in Puerto Maldonado by our guide "Donna", who was actually a man - we thought that was a girls name! He gave us a tour of the town, a
talk about the river and took us through a food market where health and safety regulations were non-existant. After packing enough luggage for 3 days, we headed to the port to catch our boat up the river. The journey was a peaceful 3 hour ride, surrounded by breathtaking rainforest. At one stage the boat stopped so we could see Macaws chewing clay off a cliff face. This is apparently either a social gathering or something to do with their diet. We soon reached our rainforest lodge which was owned by a French researcher. The main building was the only place that had electricity but our rooms were still very nice. We had running water with a proper toilet and shower (a relief after squating during the inca trail) and a couple of candles for light. We spent a while resting in the hammocks and listening to the noises of the forest. Before dinner we went on a night walk to look for bugs and any other creatures we could find. We sure many grasshoppers, spiders, termites and even an armadillo hole. Dinner was fantastic. There was pumpkin soup, steak in a French sauce and bananas in a caramel sauce for
desert. During dinner ''Donna'' discussed the plans for the following day, offering us 3 routes to walk. Unfortunately as it was the rainy season 2 of the shorter routes were flooded but he suggested that we could quite easily wade through the 50m of 1m deep water to save time on our journey. We all kindly refused, too which he seemed a little surprised. After dinner we got to meet and play with Yenna a baby spider monkey that the lodge had rescued after her mother was killed for bush meat. She was very playful and surprisingly strong for something so small. After smoothering ourselves in DEET we went to bed accompanied by the noise of the rainforest.
10th April 2009 We slept amazingly well so the early start did not bother us too much. After a quick breakfast (the usual jam surprise) we put on our wellies and started our trek. Along the way we sure some more bugs, a walking palm and a naked tree (this may sound ridculous but it is true). The ground was very muddy and we reached a section that was flooded to a depth of around 20cm. It was at
this point that Elaine realised her wellies were ultra short and had a split halfway down the back. After a struggle between Elaine and the murky depths, Alex heroically carried her over like a true gentleman. After a 3 and half hour walk we reached our destination, an ox-bow lake. Here we paddled around the lake in a canoe, looking out for Macaws and other birds. After a nice serene jaunt we were back on dry land and ready for lunch - a traditional meal of rice and chicken wrapped in a banana leaf. With full stomachs we treked back the same way to avoid the deep puddles and at one stage we were lucky enough to see some wild pigs. They are usually very shy animals and put on a very loud warning display when they saw us coming. Back at the lodge we rested a little and before dinner Corey informed us that he'd seen a troop of squirrel monkeys jumping between the trees so we went to investigate. There we saw them poking their heads out at us. Dinner yet again was a treat, how they make something that good in the middle of the jungle we'll
never know. Our final activity of the trip was caiman hunting. We took the boat in the dark and used a bright torch to spot the reflection from their eyes. We saw a few caiman and got very close to a Capybara (the worlds largest rodent) which was being stalked by a Caimen until we interupted it. Poor caimen, lucky rat.
11th April 2009 After such a busy day yesterday we struggled to get up for 5am. We had our jam surprise breakfast and headed to the boat for the journey back to Puerto Maldonado. We were going downstream so the journey was a lot quicker and only lasted 2 hours. At the port we were met by a bus that took us to collect the rest of our luggage and dropped us off at the airport. We arrived back in Lima 2 hours later where we rested before going to dinner with Corey for one last time.
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Jill
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Good times!
Sound like you're having good times! We love the blog, we're all really jealous and we miss you very muchly :o(